Next peel your banana’s and mash them in a bowl. I kept mine a little lumpy just cos I could! Next add the oil and sugar to the banana’s and stir. Next add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and stir well.

Once that’s done pour it all into the loaf tin and bake for approximately 30-45 minutes (depending if you have a fan over or not – mine is, so it cooks a lot quicker). Just make sure you cover if the top starts to darken too much, before the inside had been cooked – do the usual test by putting in a knife to test if it’s come out clean or not.

Once done, leave it to cool for 5 mins and then pop it onto a cooling rack to cool down completely (not before you sneak a little bit, cos if your’e like me you can’t wait to try it!)

Keep it in a cool dry place, covered and it’ll last a week! (If you don’t gobble it all down before then that is!)

Note: This beautiful loaf will be available to buy as soon as my online bakery is open (hopefully early August) – check out my Facebook Page herefor updates 🙂

Start by making the shortcrust pastry base, by mixing the plain flour and icing sugar. Then add the vegan margarine and rub between your fingers until the mixture becomes breadcrumb like. Then add water, little by little, until the mixture turns into a pastry dough.

Next roll the dough out into a circular shape on a floured work surface, until it is around 5mm thick, then push into a shallow tin of 7-8 inches diameter. Using a fork prick the pastry and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes until just starting to harden up. Take out of the oven and out of the tin, and place on a baking tray.

Make the filling by adding the ground almonds, self raising flour, sugar and baking powder. Stir these together well before adding the vegetable oil and cold water. Stir together and you should get a sort of gloopy cake mixture that looks a bit rough because of the ground almonds.

Now the pastry dough has cooled down add the raspberry jam. Spread this evenly over the base before carefully spooning the almond mixture on top. Spread this with the back of a spoon so that it makes an even layer with no jam poking through! Pop back in the oven at the same temperature for 25 minutes.

The middle should rise, essentially it is like a cake mixture, and you can test it after 25 minutes by putting a cocktail stick inside and seeing if it comes out clean. If it isn’t yet done, put it back in but keep a close eye on it to ensure the pastry edges don’t burn.

When cooked, remove from the oven and set aside until completely cool.

Now do the topping:

Once cooled, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add water a little bit at a time, to make a fairly stiff icing. Bear in mind, this icing needs to be spreadable, but you don’t want it all thin and running down the edges of your pastry case! Spread evenly over the cooled almond topping and there you go all done!

If you’ve been following recently you’ll know that I am intending to start my own little Vegan Cake venture very soon (I’ll be posting on my Facebook Page soon the name of my business – when I’ve thought of one – and update you on progress and tasting opportunities!)

Why?

Because I thought it was about time that us vegan’s got to eat those good old fashioned cakes we loved, and ate whilst we were non-vegans. I kind of think we deserve it and plus it’s another way of getting those non-vegan’s in our life to realise that being vegan isn’t so bad after all!

If only the killing of poor innocent animals wasn’t enough to turn them, this might…in some small way!

Anyway, as part of the process I decided to find a good old recipe for that vegetable cake we all know very well – Carrot Cake!

Luckily for me I found a great recipe on The Ethical Chef which I found to pretty simple to follow.

This was the result (I did cut it too soon, cos I couldn’t wait to try it…hence it crumbling a bit!)

Mix the sugar and margarine together in a mixing bowl until it’s light and fluffy (I used a hand mixer just to make sure!) You’ll then need to grate the carrots and then add them to the mix. Then throw in the sultana’s, orange juice and zest. Give it a good old mix. Then add the flour, salt spices and vanilla – stir it all together well.

Pour into a loaf tin, or whatever tin you have and place in the oven for about 20 minutes, at about 170 degree’s, until it’s nice and brown (cooked in the middle of course).

I decided not to add an icing to the top, because it was already sweet enough – but if you feel like making one – then go right ahead!

Start by mixing together the milk and vinegar in a bowl. Mix it so it curdles, this is essential as it gives it the fluffy texture and helps it rise. Then you’ll need to grate the lemons and set to one side for the icing. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a large bowl.

Now add the oil, sugar and lemon zest and milk mix to the large bowl and mix it all together well.

Add the flour and baking powder and combine it together, but not too well. Once that’s done, pour the mixture into a loaf tin (making sure it’s lined with baking paper first). Place in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes at oven temp 180 degrees (less if you have a fan assisted oven). Take out once it’s golden and comes out clean with a slim knife.

You’ll then need to cool it in the tin whilst you make the icing, please remember not to take it out of the tin yet! (I’ll tell you when).

In a small bowl mix together the caster sugar and lemon juice. Next pierce the cake with a toothpick or something similar across the cake, then drizzle the icing all over. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 20-25 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Making sure you take a big old slice to test! I did and I was glad I did!

p.s between you and me, I’m looking to sell these and many more of my bakery creations online soon – because I love it THAT much – so stay tuned!

What you’ll need:

250g self raising flour

1 pinch salt (you don’t have to)

50g soya butter (or any other non-dairy marg/butter)

100ml soya milk (or any other non-dairy milk)

50g caster sugar

dried fruit (I used raisins)

What you’ll need to do:

Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4 and grease a baking tray with some of your butter/marg. Then mix your flour, salt and soya butter and rub it together between your fingers so it starts to look like breadcrumbs. Once done stir in the sugar.

Now gradually mix, little by little, the milk leaving some of it to brush on top of the scones. When it’s starts to turn into a dough, mix in the dried fruit. You may need to flour the counter top first to do the next bit to stop it from sticking. Then roll out the dough and divide into balls. Place balls on prepared tray. Or like me, use a cookie cutter so it creates a nice shape for your scones.

Lastly bake them in the over until just golden, normally 10 to 25 minutes.

I have a fan assisted over, so took about 15 minutes! So keep an eye on them.

Voila!

What do you think?

I loved them (remember to keep your eye out either on here or on my facebook page for further info on purchasing your own)

Actually I love to go out and be able to order a Soya Latte and a slice of cake. But sadly being Vegan, most of the time, this isn’t always that easy. If I’m ordering a Soya Latte it’s normally from a ‘well known’ chain cafe, rather than the individual cafe’s I’d rather support.

So I decided to contact a couple of local cafe’s near me and offer to make them a vegan cake or two. One being the Chocolate Loaf cake I made the other day – you know the one with the hint of ‘Balsamic Vinegar’.

I also wanted to make a very traditional cake too, that most non-vegan’s think could never be vegan and still be delicious! So I went in search of the great old ‘Victoria Sandwich’ VEGAN STYLE and found it here thanks to Tesco.com 🙂

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix together. Whisk together the oil, milk, syrup and vanilla essence in a jug and pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. I used an electric whisk just to make sure it was creamy enough!

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 35–45 minutes until risen and cooked through (if it’s a fan assisted oven it will take a lot less time) . Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make the filling: beat together the spread, icing sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl, cover and leave to firm up in the fridge until needed.

Spread the jam evenly over one half of the cake, followed by the cream mixture. Then sprinkle some icing sugar over the top so it’s like a little dusting of it 🙂

And then EAT!

I am hoping the cafe I’m giving this to will ask for more, let’s hope they keep coming out looking this good!

How many times have you frequented a supermarket and looked helplessly for a ‘cruelty-free’ range of cleaning products??

Too many times?

Personally I try not to shop in any big supermarkets anymore. As I’ve decided to make a real impact I need to only buy from local shops, markets or farms. I believe being cruelty-free also means putting back into our very own communities, just like it should be rather than lining the pockets of big corporate’s that most likely don’t give two figs about their staff or the environment.

What do you think?

Either way, I wanted to share with you an even better way of being cruelty free, by making your own! It’s also pretty easy going on the pocket too.

Lay the asparagus stalks onto a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil and garlic on top, coating everything evenly and place into the oven (should take around 5-10 minutes). Then melt the coconut oil in a pan and toss in your sliced mushrooms. Cook until browned on both sides. Whilst doing that toast the bread and once the asparagus is cooked top the bread with the oven roasted garlic asparagus. Add the cooked mushrooms and sprinkle with the parsley.

Now EAT!!!

What do you think? If you find the bread too hard, moisten it with a layer of coconut oil top.

Cheese used to be one of the only foods that I would eat almost every single day.

I remember once saying that I could never go vegan because of my love of cheese.

Then I saw that the production of cheese caused pain and suffering to animals all around the world; I had to stop.

It doesn’t matter how much you think you ‘love’ something, when it comes to other’s suffering because of it then there is no choice other than to stop contributing to that suffering – whether I think I love it or no.

Being vegan means you taste so many other foods that you never thought you’d ever try, or had ever even considered eating before. My sense’s are heightened immensely since making this change, but also knowing that what goes into my body doesn’t have to harm another living thing. Ever. Well that feeling is like nothing else.

So hereby lies my new ‘cheese’ creation made from cashew nuts! Thanks to the ‘Clean Food Dirty Girl’ blog, I found a very easy recipe with only a few simple ingredients

Soak, drain and rinse cashews. Then place them into a food processor, along with lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Then pulse for about 1 minute to combine ingredients. You’ll then need to add water and process until completely smooth, about 2 -4 minutes.